Players Ask for a Blessing
On The Psalteries And On Themselves
Players Ask for a Blessing - meaning Summary
Mortality and Lasting Art
The poem presents a chorus and three voices pleading for a blessing on performers—their hands, mouths, notes and strings—while reflecting on mortality. Speakers contrast the fleeting, weary human bodies and their retreats with the way music and song outlive "heavy history." The closing lines urge recognition of the creators who "ebb away" even as their proud, careless notes endure, framing artistic legacy as compensation for mortal decline.
Read Complete AnalysesThree Voices [together]. Hurry to bless the hands that play, The mouths that speak, the notes and strings, O masters of the glittering town! O! lay the shrilly trumpet down, Though drunken with the flags that sway Over the ramparts and the towers, And with the waving of your wings. First Voice. Maybe they linger by the way. One gathers up his purple gown; One leans and mutters by the wall - He dreads the weight of mortal hours. Second Voice. O no, O no! they hurry down Like plovers that have heard the call. Third Voice. O kinsmen of the Three in One, O kinsmen, bless the hands that play. The notes they waken shall live on When all this heavy history's done; Our hands, our hands must ebb away. Three Voices [together]. The proud and careless notes live on, But bless our hands that ebb away.
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